NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. – The Okinawa branch of the Naha District Court ordered the government on Thursday to pay some ¥754 million in damages to residents near the Futenma air base because of aircraft noise.

Some 2,200 plaintiffs who live close to the controversial U.S. base in Ginowan complained of mental distress, poor sleep and disruption to their daily lives.

In seeking about ¥1 billion in damages from the central government, they also said they feared aircraft crashes, according to lawyers representing the plaintiffs and their lawsuit.

“The noise damage suffered by the plaintiffs is serious and widespread,” presiding Judge Satoshi Hikage said in the ruling, adding that the court found that the damage reached an unacceptable level.

The judge acknowledged that the base serves the interest of the people in the country, and that it can only be served with the sacrifice of a minority of people. But he said that does not mean they should accept the damage. The use of the air base by the U.S. military therefore “violates the rights of the plaintiffs.”

The ruling comes as Japan and the United States are seeking to move Futenma to a less densely populated area further north on Okinawa Island and return the land at Ginowan to Japanese control. Local opposition is running high, however, and many people in Okinawa want the base moved outside the prefecture altogether.

“I’m relieved that damages were awarded,” said Sogi Ganaha, a plaintiff in the suit who lives about 300 meters from the base. “Whenever I hear the roaring of a helicopter circling above my head, I remember the war 70 years ago. I’ve wanted to get compensated for my daily suffering.”

Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga, an opponent of the plan to relocate Futenma within the prefecture, hailed the ruling as “meaningful.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga argued the government had failed to fully explain its arguments to the court.

“We will adequately deal with this after coordination among the ministries and agencies concerned,” he said at a news conference.

The suit follows a similar one filed by local residents in October 2002. In that case, the Fukuoka High Court ordered the government in July 2010 to pay about ¥369 million in damages to the plaintiffs. But it rejected their plea to suspend early morning and evening flights.

The latest suit was filed in 2012 by individuals who were not plaintiffs in the earlier case.

During the trial, the government sought an exemption and to reduce the sum of compensation, arguing that some of the plaintiffs had moved to the area knowing that an air base existed there, and that the government had taken measures to reduce noise, such as funding noise abatement work on homes.

The plaintiffs’ damages were reduced as the court recognized that the government’s noise abatement measures had been effective, to some extent.

The court also dismissed the claims of around 80 plaintiffs who lived in areas where the noise level is below 75 on the Weighted Equivalent Continuous Perceived Noise Level, or WECPNL, an internationally recognized index for aircraft noise.

The decision was in line with the 2010 Fukuoka High Court ruling, in which the WECPNL of 75 or above formed the benchmark for ordering government compensation.

The court did not acknowledge the suffering the plaintiffs said was caused by low-frequency sounds from helicopters, citing a lack of evidence.

]]>http://financegreenwatch.org/?feed=rss2&p=142140New Mount Fuji evacuation map posted in wake of deadly Ontake eruption（Japan Times）http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14208
http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14208#commentsThu, 11 Jun 2015 14:02:11 +0000http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14208KOFU, YAMANASHI PREF. – In light of increased volcanic activity at some popular tourist spots across the country, a new evacuation map has been released in the vent that Mount Fuji erupts.

The climbing season for the country’s highest mountain begins next month and runs through mid-September. Local authorities have posted an evacuation route map online for climbers and tourists that outlines four scenarios for how the mountain might blow

They also held a disaster drill Thursday for local tourism businesses and the emergency services.

The peak, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, draws roughly 300,000 climbers a year and is designated as an active volcano.

However, it is difficult to predict how it might erupt as the 3,776-meter peak has a number of possible vents.

Yamanashi Prefecture’s official disaster map shows evacuation routes for four possible eruption patterns based on the vent’s location and the reach of lava. The models are based on known eruptions that took place 1,000 years ago and earlier.

The Yamanashi Prefectural Government previously issued a hazard map for residents living at the foot of Mount Fuji. It drew up the latest map for visitors in the wake of the disaster atop Mount Ontake, in which an unexpected eruption last September left 63 hikers dead or missing. Six of the bodies have not been found.

At a large parking lot halfway up Mount Fuji on the Yamanashi side, about 150 shopkeepers, lodge managers, police officers, firefighters and officials took part in the first disaster drill.

“The eruption of Mount Ontake is not someone else’s problem. We hope to make a mountain people can come to with an easy mind by continuing this kind of drill,” said Noriyuki Osano, head of the local disaster network.

Mount Ontake was not the only popular tourist site affected by recent volcanic activity. The hot spring area at Mount Hakone about 80 km southeast of central Tokyo saw its ground level rise by up to 15 cm in two weeks last month amid increased volcanic activity.

]]>http://financegreenwatch.org/?feed=rss2&p=142080Japan to boost development of next-gen thermal power technology（Mainichi）http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14204
http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14204#commentsThu, 11 Jun 2015 13:56:48 +0000http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14204TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan will accelerate the development of next-generation coal- and natural gas-fired thermal power technologies as part of its efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the burden on the environment, industry minister Yoichi Miyazawa said Tuesday.

The government will set up a committee on achieving the practical use of cutting-edge, more eco-friendly technologies, while seeking to tighten regulations on thermal power installations under the energy-saving law, Miyazawa told a press conference.

“We will accelerate the development of technology to achieve further efficiency” for thermal power, he said.

Although the international community is attempting to cut back on thermal power generation to fight climate change, Japan plans to slightly increase its dependence on coal down the road, due partly to uncertainties over the use of nuclear power following the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns.

In its long-term energy mix, the government said coal would account for 26 percent of Japan’s total electricity supply in 2030, up from an average 24 percent in the decade before the nuclear crisis.

The committee, comprising government officials, manufacturers and academics, plans to craft a road map for the development of new technologies in July.

]]>http://financegreenwatch.org/?feed=rss2&p=142040Japan needs 35 nuclear reactors operating by 2030, says industry minister（Asahi）http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14200
http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14200#commentsThu, 11 Jun 2015 13:50:09 +0000http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14200Japan needs about 35 working nuclear reactors by 2030 to achieve the government’s long-term energy strategy to return the country’s dependence on nuclear energy to slightly under the level it was before the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

That many would be required for nuclear energy to provide between 20 and 22 percent of the country’s electricity, said industry minister Yoichi Miyazawa at a Lower House committee session on economy and industry.

Currently, there are 43 nuclear reactors in Japan with three more under construction, but none are actually operating.

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, the government limited the operational life of nuclear power reactors to a maximum of 40 years in principle, with an extension of up to 20 years in exceptional cases.

If the 40-year principle was to be strictly applied to all the existing reactors, there will be only 23 operative reactors in 2030, meaning that 10 or so reactors would have to have their lifespans extended in order to reach the power target.

The three new reactors include those at two new nuclear power plants in Aomori Prefecture, Electric Power Development Co.’s Oma plant and Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Higashidori plant, while the other is the third reactor at Chugoku Electric Power Co.’s Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture.

IAEA MEETING

Japan has strengthened safety measures against severe nuclear accidents and limited the operational lifespan of reactors through revisions of the nuclear reactor regulatory law, Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano told an executive meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on June 10.

It was Japan’s responsibility to share the experiences and lessons of the Fukushima disaster with other IAEA member nations, added Kitano, who is ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna.

At the meeting, the international nuclear watchdog unveiled its report on the Fukushima disaster, which will be officially released at its general meeting in September.

The report pointed out that blind trust in nuclear safety has prevented plant operator TEPCO from taking sufficient preparatory measures against tsunami and other natural disasters, while the government and its nuclear watchdog also failed to demand TEPCO take necessary safety steps prior to the accident.

While Kitano declined to comment on the government’s opinion on the safety of nuclear power plants at the time the accident took place, he emphasized that Japan created a new nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, in 2012 to ensure its independence from the nuclear industry.

]]>http://financegreenwatch.org/?feed=rss2&p=142000​Leaking Fukushima containers could lead to hydrogen explosions(RT)http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14193
http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14193#commentsMon, 25 May 2015 14:53:02 +0000http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14193Containers holding contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are at risk of hydrogen explosions, with 10 percent of them found to be leaking. As many as 333 containers may be defective, according to TEPCO.

The first leak was discovered by the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), on April 2. The discovery prompted an inspection of other containers at the site.

Twenty-six of the 278 containers examined by May 20 had some sort of leak or were bleeding from their lids. There are a total of 1,307 containers at the plant.

According to TEPCO, the leaks and bleeding were likely caused by hydrogen and other types of gases that resulted from the water’s exposure to high levels of radiation. Those gases appear to have accumulated in sediment at the bottom of the containers, expanding the volume of the liquid​J

TEPCO reported its findings during a Friday meeting with a study group from the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), which expressed concern about the potential hazards of accumulated hydrogen build-up in the containers.

“If the concentration level is high, a spark caused by static electricity could cause a container to [explode],” an NRA official told The Asahi Shimbun.

Although all the container lids were supposed to be fitted with pressure-release valves to allow gases to escape, the inspection determined that one did not have that mechanism. Further review of the delivery records showed as many as 333 others may also be defective, a TEPCO official said.

However, TEPCO stated that no radioactive water was found to have escaped outside the concrete structures that encase the containers.

“We think the possibility of an occurrence of hydrogen explosion from these storage facilities is extremely low, since there is no fire origin, or anything that generates static electricity nearby,” TEPCO spokeswoman Mayumi Yoshida told the Telegraph.

Stressing TEPCO’s efforts to deal with the issue, Yoshida added: “For temporary measures, we have been removing the leaked water, installing absorption materials, monitoring by patrol, keeping water level inside those facilities lower than set and keeping equipment which may generate fire away. In the long term, we’re going to lower the water level of current facilities so as to prevent further leakages.”

She also stated that in the long-term, TEPCO will lower the water level of current facilities in order to prevent further leakages.

The containers, which are made of polyethylene, are 1.8 meters (5.9ft) high and have diameters of 1.5 meters (4.9ft). They store wastewater from the ALPS (advanced liquid processing system) equipment that removes radioactive substances from contaminated water.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered multiple reactor meltdowns following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. As of March, TEPCO and the Japanese government had already spent 590 billion yen (US$4.8 billion) on decommissioning the reactors and tackling the accumulation of contaminated water.

TEPCO ‘underestimated tsunami risk’

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report that TEPCO failed to implement adequate safeguards at Fukushima – despite being aware of the tsunami risk. The document was obtained by Kyodo news agency on Monday.

According to the 240-page report, several analyses carried out between 2007 and 2009 predicted the possibility of an 8.3-magnitude earthquake on the coast of Fukushima, which could result in the plant being hit by a tsunami of around 15 meters.

However, TEPCO and Japanese authorities delayed responding to the predictions, feeling that “further studies and investigations were needed.”

“TEPCO did not take interim compensatory measures in response to these increased estimates of tsunami height, nor did NISA require TEPCO to act promptly on these results,” reads the text.

The report, prepared by 180 experts from 42 countries, will be presented at the annual IAEA meeting in September, if approved by its board of directors in June.

GENEVA —Japan launched a trade complaint at the World Trade Organization on Thursday to challenge South Korea’s import bans and additional testing requirements for Japanese food after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

South Korea expressed regret at Japan’s action and said its ban on some Japanese seafood was necessary and reflected safety concerns.

Japan says several measures taken by South Korea violate the WTO’s sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) agreement and Seoul has failed to justify its trade restrictions as required, the WTO said in a statement.

Under WTO rules, South Korea has 60 days in which to deal with Japan’s concerns in bilateral talks. After that Japan could ask the WTO to adjudicate on the matter.

“In upcoming talks with Japan, we plan to explain fully that the import ban is necessary for people’s safety, and actively deal with Japan over the issue they raised based upon WTO’s dispute settlement procedures,” South Korea’s trade, agriculture, foreign affairs and other related ministries said in a joint statement.

Details of Japan’s complaint were not immediately available, but Japan has repeatedly raised the issue in committee meetings at the WTO, where it has also voiced concerns about Fukushima-related trade restrictions imposed by Taiwan and China.

Japan’s representative told the WTO’s SPS committee in March that radioactive levels in Japanese food had declined substantially since the accident. It noted that the United States, Australia, the European Union, Singapore and Vietnam had all lifted or eased their Fukushima-related restrictions.

South Korea extended its ban on Japanese fishery imports in September of 2013 to cover imports from eight Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima.

Last October, the Japanese representative at the WTO committee said contamination levels in more than 99 percent of food items were below standard limits, and strict measures prevented the sale or export of any food exceeding those limits.

South Korea’s representative told the same meeting that its restrictions were in line with the WTO rules, but Japan had not provided it with sufficient data for an objective and science-based risk assessment.

Japan’s representative also cited an assessment from the International Atomic Energy Agency in September 2014, which found its measures to deal with contamination were appropriate, according to minutes of the WTO committee.

The average annual value of South Korean imports of Japanese fish and seafood was $96 million in 2012-2014, less than half the average of $213 million in 2006-2010, according from data from the International Trade Center in Geneva.

]]>http://financegreenwatch.org/?feed=rss2&p=141880U.N. climate fund gears up to deploy cash after Japan signs $1.5 bil pledge（Japan Today）http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14181
http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14181#commentsSun, 24 May 2015 12:36:33 +0000http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14181BARCELONA —The U.N.‘s Green Climate Fund can start deciding where to deploy its cash following the signing of an agreement with the Japanese government that means it will have enough money to begin operating.

The new fund for international climate finance needed to convert half of the $9.35 billion pledges made for its first pledging conference last November into firm contribution agreements to become effective. It had set a deadline for the end of April.

Japan and the United States did not meet that deadline, leaving the fund short. But Japan’s move to firm up its $1.5 billion pledge on Thursday brings the total covered by signed agreements to $5.47 billion, above the 50% threshold.

“This achievement means the Fund has reached an important milestone and can now start making financial commitments to developing countries,” said Héla Cheikhrouhou, executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Atsuyuki Oike, a senior official with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tokyo hoped the step forward would “contribute to successful negotiations” for a new global climate change deal due to be agreed in Paris at the end of the year.

Earlier this week, French President Francois Hollande said developing nations were unlikely to sign up to that deal without more financial commitments from wealthy governments to help them adapt to climate impacts and transition to renewable energy.

The GCF, which is seeking additional funds from donors, aims to become the main international vehicle for climate finance.

So far 33 governments, including eight developing countries, have pledged nearly $10.2 billion to the GCF. Of those, 21 have signed contribution agreements.

“Governments that have not yet pledged to the Fund are encouraged to step forward,” Cheikhrouhou said in a statement on Thursday.

She also called on those that have made pledges but not yet signed an agreement to do so “urgently”.

At the end of April, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said Washington remained committed to the GCF and would continue to work with Congress to fulfill its $3 billion pledge.

The Green Climate Fund aims to have ready its first set of projects for approval by its board at a meeting in November. Money is unlikely to start flowing for activities on the ground until next year, however.

Exactly which type of projects the GCF will choose to back remains unclear.

Its mandate is to promote a shift toward low-emission and climate-resilient growth in developing countries, and help keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.

The fund has a goal of allocating half of its resources for emissions-reducing projects and half for efforts to protect people from climate change impacts such as extreme weather and rising seas.

A recent analysis identified under-funded areas that could maximise the GCF’s impact – in particular, investments in efficient and resilient cities, land-use management and reducing the vulnerability of small islands, the fund said.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the results of a review of energy production costs, which concluded that nuclear will remain the cheapest alternative for Japan over the next 15 years while pointing out that the calculations took into consideration the government’s new safety measures.

By 2030, the cost of producing a kilowatt hour of electricity in a nuclear plant is expected to increase from ¥8.9 to ¥10.1. This estimate also incorporates the presumed savings resulting from those new safety measures, which, METI assumes, will reduce the “frequency” of reactor accidents.

In comparison, energy derived from coal will cost ¥12.9 per kilowatt hour and from LNG ¥13.4, though these figures are based on price increases predicted in 2011. More significantly, the cost of solar will rise from ¥12.4 to ¥16, and wind from ¥13.9 to ¥33.1. Geothermal comes in at ¥19.2. METI said these high costs will “affect development” of renewables, implying that there isn’t much of a future for them.

A few days later, Shukan Asahi ran an article assessing these calculations, pointing out that the figure of ¥10.1 per kW/hour for nuclear is, in the ministry’s statement, followed by the word ijō, meaning “at least,” while figures for other energy sources are not. The Asahi suggests that METI is trying to assure deniability because it’s almost certain that nuclear-related costs will increase in the future.

According to Kenichi Oshima, professor of environmental economics at Ritsumeikan University, the ¥9.1 trillion needed to clean up the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and pay compensation to locals affected by the accident was not factored into the estimate; nor was the cost of decommissioning not only Fukushima No. 1 but other reactors scheduled to go out of service in the next 15 years, and Tokyo Electric Power Co. hasn’t even set a budget for decommissioning Fukushima, a separate procedure from the cleanup. To put matters into perspective, the estimated amount of radioactive material at Fukushima that needs to be processed is equivalent to the amount of radioactive material that would need to be processed from the normal decommissioning of 54 nuclear reactors.

Decommissioning involves removing the spent fuel from the reactor and then disassembling the containment vessel and tearing down the facility. Tepco maintains it has expertise in this area, based on its decommissioning of a test reactor in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture. The group that carried out that work says 99 percent of the radiation in the plant was in the fuel rods, so that was the only waste that required special handling.

But Japan still lacks facilities for storing high-level radioactive waste. At present, spent fuel rods are kept on-site at the nuclear plants from which they’re removed, whether these plants are in operation or not, and high-level waste stays radioactive for hundreds of years. Even low-level irradiated waste, such as the discarded containment vessel, has to be isolated for 30 to 50 years. Tokaimura’s decommissioning was supposed to be completed by 2017, but there is still no solution to the waste problem, so the timetable has been extended to 2025.

But this “easy” scenario for decommissioning doesn’t apply to Fukushima, because Tepco doesn’t know exactly how much high-level radioactive material has to be removed — or even where it is. NHK World elicited a frank evaluation of the situation from Naohiro Masuda, the man in charge of decommissioning Fukushima No. 1, on “Newsline,” its English-language news program. Masuda doesn’t believe decommissioning can start before 2020, and betrays doubt as to whether a proper cleanup of the plant “is even possible.”

The public broadcaster went further last week with a documentary in its series “Decommissioning Fukushima,” a process that, under the most favorable circumstances, won’t be completed until 2051.

There are few examples to follow for the people trying to clean up the crippled reactors. It took workers at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant three years to find the radioactive debris after the 1979 meltdown, and another 11 years to remove it, and that was only one reactor. Fukushima has three damaged reactors, within which the radiation is lethal, so Tepco and its affiliates designed a ¥1.5 billion robot to enter the reactor and look around. It got stuck mid-inspection.

NHK shows how Tepco has sought advice from experts in France and South Korea to facilitate the cleanup, and while these consultations yield useful ideas, as the program points out, all accidents are unique, which means cleaning up after them is invariably complicated.

Meanwhile, expenses are accumulating at a rate that makes them difficult to project, but according to a different Shukan Asahi article, Japan’s nuclear industry has set the cost of decommissioning at between ¥55 billion and ¥70 billion per reactor. Germany and the U.K., which have each decommissioned a number of reactors, spent the equivalent of between ¥250 billion and ¥300 billion.

The online magazine Business Journal recently explained the matter in bookkeeping terms. Kansai Electric and other power companies plan to decommission at least five superannuated reactors rather than apply for extensions because their respective output isn’t enough to pay for the government’s new safety measures, which cost about ¥10 billion per reactor.

The problem is that once a reactor is shut down permanently, in addition to the cost of decommissioning, the company’s revenue for that plant drops to zero, thus hurting its bottom line even more and making it difficult to borrow money or issue bonds. Consequently, METI is thinking of changing the accounting system so that companies can spread this loss over 10 years, during which they can add a surcharge to every customer’s bill for decommissioning.

Obviously, when METI says nuclear is the cheapest form of energy, they’re not thinking about the user.

]]>http://financegreenwatch.org/?feed=rss2&p=141760Container for Fukushima waste found without gas venting holes(Kyodo)http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14172
http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14172#commentsSun, 24 May 2015 12:08:49 +0000http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=14172Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) revealed on May 22 that one of its containers for waste liquid remaining after the processing of contaminated water at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant did not have the necessary holes in its lid for venting out gas.

A total of 305 containers are being used without having been checked for venting holes. TEPCO says it will quickly inspect all of the containers.

The containers hold sludge and other waste liquids containing radioactive materials that remain after contaminated water is put through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). The waste produces gasses like hydrogen, so as a safety measure the Nuclear Regulation Authority had asked TEPCO to create the holes.

In early April, containers were found to be leaking radioactive waste liquids through the venting holes. Later in the month, a company in a cooperative relationship with TEPCO was inspecting the containers when it discovered the container without the venting holes. Out of the approximately 1,400 containers, 334 — including ones that are not being used yet — have not yet been checked for venting holes.

TEPCO has speculated that the work to create the holes was skipped over at a factory in the United States.

It is looking to use the abundance of solar power in space to generate electricity by the 2040s. A number of technical and financial challenges to doing this lie ahead.

In March, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA, Japan Space Systems and other entities successfully transmitted electricity via wireless power transfer to a target 55-meters away.

Researchers from the group used a Mitsubishi Electric facility in Hyogo Prefecture to carry out the experiment. They first converted electric energy into microwaves and then sent it using an antenna. Microwaves are often used in cellphones. The receiving antenna received the microwaves and converted them into 300 watts of electricity, enough to power three PCs.

Wireless power transfer systems either use magnetic fields to send electricity between transmitting and receiving coils or send electricity through radio waves. Some electric shavers and mobile phone batteries can be recharged wirelessly. Space solar power generation would use the radio wave technology.

Big challenges

The concept of space solar energy was first presented in the 1960s in the U.S. Since then, scientists around the world have been studying ways to realize the technology.

Currently, the idea is to generate electricity by receiving sunlight with 2-km by 2-km solar panels in space and convert that power into radio waves for transmission to Earth. On the ground, antennas receive the radio waves, which are turned back into electricity.

One advantage of space solar power generation is that it would not be affected by weather conditions. As such, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry estimates it could generate power of around 1 million kilowatts, equal to that of a nuclear reactor. If this new source of energy becomes widely available, a resources-poor country like Japan will be able to turn itself into a power exporter.

But now comes the difficult part. Japan needs to develop the technology to efficiently convert electricity into radio waves and vice versa, as well as for sending radio waves accurately to targets on the ground from 36,000km away. The test in March was a step in that direction.

To generate power in space, an array of 1-meter square panels will be formed to make a 2km solar antenna in radius. Numerous solar panels will be lined up on this giant power generation system. The test used a panel 60-cm in radius, 2.5-cm thick and 16 grams in weight.

If the location of individual antenna elements shifts, that could disrupt radio waves and reduce power transmission efficiency. Mitsubishi Electric has developed the technology for fine-tuning the timing for each antenna element to send radio waves. In the test, the company shifted antenna elements by a few centimeters on purpose, but it succeeded in transmitting radio waves without any problems.

“Our technology is coming up to the level where it can be used in space,” said Yukihiro Honma, an official at Mitsubishi Electric’s Communication Systems Center.

IHI Aerospace has developed a receiving antenna, which measures over 2 meters in height and length.

.

IHI Aerospace created a receiving antenna board — 2.6-meter high and 2.3-meter long — aligned with about 2,300 round patch antennas. The company verified that this antenna successfully received radio waves.

In February, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also succeeded in wireless power transmission. The company plans to use the technology to send electricity to isolated villages suffering blackouts due to natural disasters, as opposed to space solar power generation.

Efficiency issues

Companies still face a number of technical challenges, including how to improve the efficiency for power transmission and reception.

Experts believe that space solar power generation will become commercially viable if 50% of the power generated in space can be transmitted to Earth. However, JAXA and other tests show that only 5-10% of the power was actually transmissible. To boost this ratio, these companies need to develop new semiconductor chips, among other things.

Koji Tanaka, an associate professor at JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, is working on a project that sends radio waves from a satellite 300km above the ground. He uses the data to examine transmission efficiency, safety and other technological concerns.

At this altitude, molecules are broken up and ionized with solar radiation. Therefore, radio waves at this height could be diverted or absorbed. “We would like to launch the project in a few years’ time and verify how it actually goes,” said Tanaka.

Another huge hurdle is the exorbitant costs needed to fund space solar power generation. The equipment for such a space-based system weighs about 10,000 tons in total. It would take more than 1,000 launches by Japan’s H2A rocket to bring all the equipment to the space. In theory, Japan needs to spend 1.2436 trillion yen ($10.1 billion) to construct a 1 million kilowatts facility using a space solar power generation system, according to JAXA estimates.

Furthermore, Japan needs to put in place a more efficient management system. Currently, the science ministry is responsible for space research, METI supervises the business aspects and the internal affairs ministry is in charge of radio waves.

“To secure energy, the important thing is to build a cooperative system for realizing this technology,” said Naoki Shinohara, a professor at Kyoto University who researches space solar power generation.